missunderstood
by Aicalania
Summary: A new teacher literally rocks Hogwarts with an entrance like no other. But she has a higher calling than simple teaching - to protect Harry against Dark forces that he's never seen before. Non-DH compliant


(miss)understood – Chapter One – Bold & Delicious

by Aicalania

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_Yay, my first fanfic posted here! This is obviously a Harry Potter fic, involving my original character as she meets everyone during their seventh year at Hogwarts! I wanted to do something different, and the music I've been listening to lately has had a pretty big influence on what I wrote. I hope you like it!_

_The fic is not DH-compliant, since I kind of wished they had spent the year at Hogwarts instead of running around the world. Also, I don't know if I'll use anything from after the fourth book, but we'll see. I just wanted to have fun with this world and share my ideas with all my readers!_

_Disclaimer time, I guess. I don't own Harry Potter, but I do own Kairiki, Siirenias, and the storyline! So don't sue me cause I'm broke!_

-- -- --

The Hogwarts Express blew steam all across Platform 9 ¾, and she frowned. Leave it to the British to use old-fashioned steam engines. The trip across the countryside was going to be long and boring.

She knew she drew eyes, even as she ignored the watchers. Even back home, she had drawn the attention of every male – and quite a few females. But then again, doing that was her job back there. Now her job would be handling a bunch of magic English brats...

Her name was Kairiki. She had no last name, having been disowned by her parents about ten years ago. In Japan, where she was from, she had been a popular idol for both the Muggle and wizarding worlds, and even in the smoky, dimly lit platform, it showed. Her long white hair shimmered to her waist (her Muggle managers had all been Confunded to believe it was dyed, but it was her natural hair color), and her eyes, silver and catlike, actually glowed when looked at closely. She was a little short at 5'4", with a petite body that looked amazing in the cute goth-loli outfits she wore so often. She wasn't wearing one of those outfits at the moment, though – instead, she was wearing a cute schoolgirl outfit with white, thigh-length socks and black boots. Nothing in her teaching contract said she had to wear those ugly robes, after all.

She frowned for a moment, realizing that her shoulder was chilly. A quick glance at said shoulder showed that her usual source of shoulder warmth was not there, and was nowhere in sight.

"Siirenias!" she yelled. A few people nearby turned to look at her, but she simply smiled at them. The parents of a nearby student smiled back and turned to the train again, but their son kept looking. She sized him up; he looked to be a seventh-year with nice blond hair and blue eyes...

"Kaiiiiiii!" came a small, cute voice from the air in front of her. Suddenly, her vision was obscured by a faceful of fur. "Kai, what're you doing? We have to get on the train!"

Giggling a little, she grasped the mass of fur by the neck and separated it from her face. Her fox familiar, Siirenias, grinned at her in a foxy way, and she set him back on her shoulder before walking to the train.

"Were you checking out the blond guy?" Siir asked as they began to search for a compartment.

"Maybe..."

"I thought you liked redheads better."

"Meh, I can make an exception."

They continued along the train until, finally, they found an empty compartment. She sank into the seat, commenting, "At least the seats are comfortable," and immediately took to staring out the window at the gathered crowd. She scanned the crowd for a certain person. It wouldn't be too hard to spot him...

...and there he was, standing beside his friends. Unruly black hair and emerald orbs were easy for her to make out even at this distance. The Boy Who Lived looked amazing at the age of seventeen, which was made all the more obvious by the girls packed around him.

"Hey, you're not here to look at guys," came Siir's voice from the top of her head.

"I know, Siir, but you know I can't resist that accent.

At that moment, there was a knock on the compartment door. She looked over to see a group of students crowding around the entrance with notebooks and pens in hand. When she smiled at them, a couple of the girls squealed loudly, and the guys turned red. The compartment door opened when she waved at it, and they piled in, all babbling excitedly.

"Omigod, Kairiki-chan!" the girl in front shrieked. She winced mentally; the girl had the face of a pug and squealed like a pig, never a good combination. "I can't believe I finally get to meet you! I've got all your CDs and I watched all of your concerts and your movie and when you were in that anime...can you sign this poster?"

She smiled and summoned a quill from nowhere. "What's your name?"

As she signed autographs and chatted with her fans, she continued to glance out the window. Harry was gone now; the platform was nearly empty of students. But he was here somewhere, and she would do her job to the best of her ability.

And she had to admit, she was pretty good.

Later on, when she had finished signing things and gotten everyone out of the compartment, she sighed and leaned back on the soft seat.

"You think they'll notice I don't have a wand?" she asked Siirenias. The little fox was resting on her stomach, keeping her warm.

"Well, you're here to teach wandless magic, aren't you? Why would you need a wand?"

"Well, everyone here seems to use them. I don't get it!" She frowned at the ceiling. "Why bother with a silly bit of wood?"

"Tradition, maybe?" Siir rolled over, and she absently rubbed his sandy belly fur.

"Meh, whatever. At least we'll be able to liven things up a bit."

-- -- --

They stepped off the Hogwarts Express into pouring rain and crowded confusion. Students were everywhere, and for a second, she was shoved around by the crowd as kids ran around excitedly, searching for friends. A few people looked her way, and a group led by the pug-faced girl from before seemed to be making their way over. There was one pale, white-blond haired boy with them who was holding what looked like a rolled up poster and was staring at her with unabashed awe on his face.

"Here comes the fanboy horde," Siir said dryly from the top of her head.

"Miss...Kairiki?" came a severe voice from beside her. She turned, and had to look up at a tall, stern-looking witch.

"That's me!" She giggled; she always did that onstage.

"I trust you had a comfortable journey?"

"Yes, it was very nice," she replied. "Uh, sorry about the clothes, we don't wear robes in Japan..."

"That's quite alright, you may wear your preferred clothes here. My name is Professor McGonagall, by the way; I'm the Deputy Headmistress. Now if you would please follow me, we'll head up to the castle and get settled in before the feast."

The stern witch turned and began to make her way through the crowd and she followed, pausing to smile, wink, and blow a kiss at the group of groupies still trying to reach her. There was a series of earsplitting squeals and the pale-haired boy went a deep shade of scarlet. She laughed a little to herself and followed Professor McGonagall to a carriage.

She stopped dead in her tracks at the side of the carriage, staring at the strange skeletal horses harnessed to it. "Thestrals," she said softly, before wrenching the door open and jumping in.

"You have seen the thestrals before?" Professor McGonagall asked as she settled into a seat facing away from the black horses. She nodded shortly, dislodging Siirenias from her head and into a pile of wet fur on her lap.

"Yes, a couple times before. They aren't as common in Japan, but sometimes when I was on tour..." She trailed off, remembering exactly why she was able to see the horses.

Professor McGonagall didn't pursue the issue. Instead, she said, "After the Sorting and the feast, I will show you to your classroom and office. All of your luggage has been moved there already, and if you require a house-elf to help you move in, all you need to do is ask."

She nodded once, still thinking about the thestrals. Before she knew it, they had reached Hogwarts, and were hurrying through the huge entrance hall to the even bigger Great Hall. There were a few students in there, though most were straggling in from the rain, and a good deal of them turned to look at her as she passed. The only reason she noticed, however, was through her peripheral vision as she looked up at the ceiling. The ceiling was stormy, with rolling clouds that were occasionally backlit by lightning, and the castle windows shook every so often with the thunder accompanying the flashes of light. She kept looking up until they reached the head table, where she was greeted by the other teachers and the headmaster. Then she sat in a chair somewhere to the left of the headmaster, next to Severus Snape, who had given her an appraising look while shaking her hand before looking away. She hadn't really noticed though; she was too busy looking at the ceiling and the storm as it lashed down on the school.

"It's really pretty, isn't it?" she said quietly to Siir, who was on her head once again and was looking over the gathering students.

"What's so different about a storm here and a storm back home?" the little fox said back.

"It's a lot different here. It's...I dunno. Wilder."

Siirenias made a sort of confused purring noise, and she smiled before turning her attention to the gathered students. A group of small kids – the first years, she guessed – were standing before the head table, all looking very nervous and extremely wet. There was an old hat on a stool in front of them, and apparently she had spaced out on part of Dumbledore's speech, because they were all coming forward to put on the hat, which would then yell one of the House names.

"You should really pay more attention," Siir said with a little chuckle. She retaliated by pulling him off the top of her head.

When all the students had been Sorted, Dumbledore stood again. She immediately began to pay attention, not wanting to miss out on anything.

"Now that all our new students have been Sorted, I'd like to introduce everyone to a new member of our staff. She has very recently agreed to teach wandless magic, a subject in which Hogwarts has sadly been lacking in past years. Some of you may know her, and I personally am a fan of her work..." Both she and Siirenias giggled a little. "...and I hope you will all join me in welcoming Kairiki-sensei to Hogwarts."

The Great Hall exploded with cheers and applause; she stood and waved at the assembled students. "Kairiki-sensei?" Siirenias laughed, though only she heard. "You like that, don't you?"

"So what if I do? Remind me to get one of those lab coats and a pair of glasses."

The students were chanting something that took her a minute to work out, but when she did, she smiled widely.

"Sing a song! Sing a song!" most of them were yelling.

She looked down the table to Professor Dumbledore, who was smiling at her encouragingly. The other teachers looked interested as well, so she set Siir on her shoulder and walked around the front of the table. Before she spoke, a quick muttered spell cast a microphone spell on her throat, and she smiled dazzingly at the students before speaking.

"Konban wa, minna-san!" she called. "It's so great to have everyone's support! I hope I'll be a good enough teacher this year, and I promise we'll have a lot of fun!" There was another round of cheering, and she waited for it to die down again before speaking. "Since everyone seems to want me to sing, I'll sing something by one of the people who inspired me to become an idol, Gackt!"

She waved her hand once, and the candles in the room dimmed. Spotlights from nowhere lit her up as her outfit morphed from her schoolgirl clothes to a black tank top with a mesh shirt over it, a short black skirt, white stockings, and a different pair of black boots. The changes weren't limited to her clothes, however; her eyes went from silver to a molten gold that actually glowed in the darkness. The last thing to happen was the emergence of a pair of fox ears from under her silver hair; with her improved hearing, she heard some of the first years gasp.

It had been a while since she'd actually revealed her ears, even in her concerts for the wizarding world. She knew that some people didn't like the idea of a half-human witch, even back at home. Kitsunes were rare enough that only a few people had known about them until she had come along. The fox people usually lived in the forests of Japan, occasionally taking a completely human form when they fell in love with humans. The few half-kitsunes she knew had limited powers of transformation, and mostly limited it to showing their ears and tail in front of close people. She, on the other hand, could go into full fox form when necessary, as she had found out at an early age. Her mother had no idea why, but it made communicating with her relatives and cosplaying so much easier. It would also make a good impression on the students; with any luck, they'd take it as a cue to behave in her class.

From seemingly nowhere, music began to play. With the smile that had won her so many fans, she grasped her conjured mike – she had to have it, even if she wasn't actually using it – and began to sing her favorite song. As her silvery voice spun over the enthralled audience, she kept an eye on Harry Potter and his friends, who were sitting about halfway down the Hall at the Gryffindor table. His redhead friend seemed to be entranced by her performance, and the bushy-haired girl was glaring daggers at the redhead, but Harry himself seemed distracted. It was a bit off-putting, she had to admit, but at least there was no way the Boy Who Lived could ignore her music. So she put her heart into the performance, finishing to deafening applause from students and faculty alike.

-- -- --

When the feast was over and she had managed to get away from her fans, she was taken to her office by an apparently impressed Professor McGonagall. Once the Deputy Headmistress had left, she looked around the office.

House-elves had set up most of her things, leaving only her personal effects to be put where she wanted. It took a short time to get everything in place, and then she went into her bedroom.

"So you think he noticed you?"

"I just gave a mini-concert for the school, Siir, I doubt he'd be able to miss it. Besides, I don't need him to notice me. It's not like I'm seducing him or anything." She finished putting on her pajamas and studied the katana that she had unpacked on the end of her bed. "I'm just here to protect him."

"Of course. You are the best, after all."

With a happy smile, she climbed into bed, holding Siirenias like a teddyfox, and quickly fell asleep.

-- -- --

_So that's the first chapter! The song Kai sang at the opening ceremony was Vanilla, because I just started listening to it the other day (cause Gackt was Genesis's voice actor in Crisis Core) and had to put it somewhere. It's just that awesome._

_Also, if you want to see the clothes I had her wear in this chapter, catch me on MSN! (My email is in my profile.) And please review! Reviews make me happy since school keeps me sad._

_- Ai-sama _


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